Wednesday, Feb 20, 2019 at 23:48
OBJ posted:
You ae right about weight. we are scrutinising everything we are going to take on the trip. Only difficulty I am having is cutting down on water.
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Have you thought about towing a very small trailer? I have a 1600 x 1200 x .450 very light weight trailer with a tubular axle, single leaf springs, shocks and no brakes.
We use it when we stay close to
home and
camp for extended periods. It is divided into seven separate compartments and is used only for carrying a lot of small items like gas bottles,
camp ovens, large folding chairs etc. that would take up too much room in the car and take its weight up to close to GVM.
If I intended driving over long roads like the Canning or Anne Beadell, I would make another one just to carry water and fuel and not much else.
Fuel would be carried in car fuel tanks. I have seen a few ute tanks in self serve wrecking yards that would sit nicely sideways across the trailer chassis in front of and behind the axle. Five jerries would fit across the chassis above the axle. Things like an extra spare wheel could be fitted easily.
You don't need a body or a lid on a trailer like that. Something like that should make it possible to take all that you need while keeping the car
well under GVM and
miles under its towing capacity.
It is excessive weight and speed that breaks cars in those rough and remote conditions. If drivers kept both down, none of them should have any trouble out there.
Getting back to shocks: I don't know the exact reason Collyn Rivers chose re-valved trucks shocks. My guess is it was to get more heat absorbiton by using a larger shock while bringing them back to the standard specifications of the originals was to avoid overstressing the standard shock mounts.
In my days in the motor industry I saw a lot more than just a few broken shock mounts as a result of stiffer aftermarket shocks. In two cases they ripped the top rear shock mounts out of the floor in 2wd station wagons.
Tha is just something else to keep in mind when altering the original design.
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